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The Quesadilla Gorilla food truck in Three Rivers would be expanded under a plan that includes selling bonds for the business. Photo contributed
Written by Gabriel Dillard
A local restaurant is fundraising to expand an existing location and possibly open a new location using a unique method — small business bonds.
Quesadilla Gorilla is offering the bonds for sale to fund expansion of a Three Rivers location and possibly open a fifth location for the Visalia-based chain.
Miguel Reyes, co-owner of Quesadilla Gorilla, said that selling bonds to the public was a way to get the public involved, with the interest payments going to community members.
“It’s a great way to get the community behind us and invest in something local,” Reyes said.
Reyes found out about the fundraising method through a webinar hosted by Stanford University.
Quesadilla Gorilla held its IPO at the beginning of November and now has 17 days left in the fundraiser.
So far the eatery — with locations in Visalia, Fresno, Three Rivers and most recently Hanford — has raised more than $107,000 with a maximum goal of $165,000, according to SMBX, the hosting website for the bond offering.
Title III of the 2016 JOBS Act opened up rules regarding public financing for small business.
Ben Stein, director of business development with San Francisco-based SMBX, said debt-financing such as bonds opens access to capital for small businesses that might not be able to afford legal fees associated with drawing up plans for an equity raise.
“Because we’re working on the debt side, it opens up access to capital because more people can invest,” Stein said.
Reyes and his wife, Mikayla, co-owner of Quesadilla Gorilla, opened two new locations this year. The Hanford one opened in November, only days before the couple had their second child.
Reyes says money from the sale will go toward building out their Three Rivers location. Earlier in the year, the engine on their food truck blew out. It was going unused until somebody told them about a spot in Three Rivers, the Tulare County town on the way to Kings Canyon National Park.
They had the food truck towed to the spot and made it a permanent fixture there in the town.
“We pretty much built an outside restaurant around it,” said Reyes. It became one of their busiest locations over the summer with travelers going through on their way to the national forest.
Reyes wants to keep the outdoor model but add two shipping containers to include a 20-beer tap system in one and use the other to expand seating and add a dessert concept with soft-serve ice cream and churros. He also wants to turn it into more of a venue, offering live music and other food trucks to turn the location into an attraction.
Reyes is also contemplating a fifth location with his eyes on Clovis, Tulare or even as far as the Central Coast. If they pulled the trigger on the fifth location, he hopes to be open by September 2021.
Reyes says part of the plan for the restaurant has been to grow every year.
In 2019, Quesadilla Gorilla was named No. 3 on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Fastest-Growing Inner City Businesses with a 995% growth rate.
Despite the pandemic, the “grab-and-go” model for Quesadilla Gorilla adapted pretty well to shelter-in-place orders that shut down dine-in restaurants across the state.They have had delivery for some time and so customers were familiar with using it. And with banks busy dispersing PPP, Reyes said selling bonds was a lot easier than compiling the paperwork for a bank loan.
He has a good relationship with his bank, he said, but at 6% interest for the bonds, the price was comparable to the 7% he pays for the SBA loan.
“We were always looking to try to grow every year, and going through a bank can be difficult,” Reyes said. “It can be a long process getting the paperwork.”


text: Starbucks and McDonald’s say they now get a third or more of their China business from mobile payments, reflecting the nation’s growing global leadership in the high-tech electronic transaction space, Caixin reports. About 45% of purchases at McDonald’s more than 2,400 China stores are made through mobile payments, the company revealed at an event over the weekend. Meantime, Starbucks said 29% of transactions at its China stores were made through mobile payment in the first quarter, according to its China CEO, Belinda Wong, who revealed the figure during the company’s latest analyst briefing. Starbucks’ mobile payments have ramped up in the last half-year after it signed a tie-up with Tencent, operator of the popular WeChat instant messaging app and its associated payment tool. The sector’s other major player is Alipay, a unit of Ant Financial Services Group, with WeChat and Alipay collectively controlling 90% of the digital-wallet market. More than 77% of Chinese have used mobile payment tools at some point.

domain: news


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Businesses to showcase services at Expo
DEMING - The upcoming second annual Deming Business Expo is designed to help businesses and the community network with one another and learn how to make doing business in Deming easier, friendlier and more profitable.
The Expo is planned for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 23, at the Special Events Center, 2300 E. Pine St. The event is free and open to the public.
“After last year’s Expo, we received a lot of feedback about how the community and business owners were surprised at just how many services are available locally,” Cassie Arias, director of the Deming Luna County Economic Development organization, said. “We know from experience this is a valuable opportunity for anyone living in our community, especially business owners.”
Businesses may register for a booth or speaking slot up to the day before the event. At the event, there will be 10-minute promotional slots throughout the day for businesses to speak about their services and products. These slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve a speaking slot or booth, contact email@example.com.
“This event actually turns into a lot of fun,” said Laurie Findley, executive director of the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce and Deming MainStreet. “You can walk from booth to booth and run into everything from serious business conversations and professional networking to friends catching up or meeting for the first time.”
The Expo is hosted by a collaboration between the DLCCED, Chamber, MainStreet, Small Business Development Center, New Mexico Workforce Connection and Western New Mexico University.
A lunch catered by La Fonda Restaurant will also be served for $5.


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Slinkylinks Wires Australian Hi-Fi Music Market
Auckland, December 18, 2002 - New Zealand hi-fi audio cabling innovation is wiring Australia for sound in a major
contract to supply crystal-clear cabling to music buffs there.
Auckland company Slinkylinks Ltd (http://www.slinkylinks.net
) develops hi-fi audio cabling that vastly improves sound quality in stereo systems – and is easy on the pocket.
With the assistance of Trade New Zealand staff in Australia, the company has negotiated a contract to supply Slinkylinks
cabling to leading Australian hi-fi products distributor NRS. Its 22 staff across Australia will onsell the product.
Slinkylinks Ltd manufactures its cabling in Wellington and uses a unique, simple mix of ingredients – silver conductors
that are more conductive than traditional copper, air as an insulation medium and plastic covering – to build cables
that deliver sounds free of conventional cable distortion. Before Slinkylinks entered the market, only high-end hi-fi
enthusiasts had been able to afford such a top quality cabling product.
Trade New Zealand helped Slinkylinks to launch into Australia by identifying key players in the market through its
extensive network of contacts.
Trade New Zealand's Trade Development Executive in Australia, Chris Ellison, says the agency helped in several ways – it
contacted industry journalists to discover the movers and shakers of the industry, and provided verification of leading
distributors for Slinkylinks, and set up meetings with distributors in Sydney and Melbourne.
“Trade New Zealand helped Slinkylinks to hit the ground running in the Australian market by researching and validating
players in the market on their behalf, removing a number of risks for them. Our backing as a Government agency helped to
open doors for Slinkylinks and position them as a leading New Zealand cabling supplier,” Mr Ellison says.
Slinkylinks' Business Development Manager Simon Holbrook says the company began looking into expanding its sales
overseas after its cabling took off in New Zealand and received rave reviews for reproducing crystal clear sound
compared to conventional cabling that often created distortion.
“That hype began to reach Australia and we noticed a demand for the cabling there. We had gained brand acceptance in New
Zealand, and we believe our speaker cabling is unparalleled on a global level, so decided to try and crack the
Australian market. We're rapt with the result,” Mr Holbrook says.
Now Slinkylinks has also cracked another global hi-fi market with its slinky cabling – India. A leading Indian hi-fi
products distributor and hi-fi electronics store owner has latched onto Slinky Links and is to distribute the cabling
The Australian electronics industry is particularly lucrative and growing strongly. In South Australia alone, the
industry increased its revenue nearly seven-fold in the 1990s, from AUD$320 million in 1990 to AUD$3 billion in the year
to June 2002. Overseas exports are growing at more than 30% per year.


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Last week, Apple unveils three models of the iPhone 11 which are iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. During the event, Apple says this is the most durable smartphone ever. This is because Apple uses the world’s toughest glass for the iPhone 11. It pretty seems convincing even in the video drop test by Apple. However, a real drop test video will prove how durable the iPhone 11 is.
Today, we have the proof that iPhone 11 “world’s toughest glass” is not that tough at it seems. When in the morning we watch the video from YouTuber EverythingApplePro, we know this glass is easily breakable. You can watch the video below. Make sure, you make your heart stronger before watching it.
When we start watching the video, the iPhone 11 did not broke until the shoulder height. It was very convincing at first actually. But then when he dropped the iPhone from above the ladder which is around 10-feet, the both the back and front glass shattered. Despite that, the iPhone is still usable without any issues. That’s a plus point for Apple.
No matter how durable Apple says the iPhone 11 glass is, it still breaks. But we have to thank Apple for making such a durable phone where it took more drops for it to drop. If you notice the previous iPhone it got shatters easily when it drops from the shoulder height. Kudos Apple!
Finally, our advice to you all would be since you have spent a few thousand dollars for the iPhone why not consider getting a durable smartphone case. Checkout dBrand Grip case for iPhone 11. Personally we would say this is a super durable smartphone case we have ever seen for a smartphone.


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All Things Qt
The current release schedule indicates that a 5.5 beta will be released on April 9.
The goal is still to release a Qt 5.4.2 sometime in April.
Qt 4.8.7 could be released Tuesday of this week.
KDAB has announced it is dropping ongoing BlackBerry 10 support in Qt 5.


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“Buy with Prime” increases shopper conversion by 25%
Amazon yesterday said “Buy with Prime” has shown an increase of shopper conversion by an average of 25%. Buy with Prime, launched in April last year, enables merchants to use benefits of Amazon Prime in their own online stores.
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Amid the ongoing global crisis, unemployment has become a major issue in both developed and developing countries. The long span of lockdown has forced small to medium businesses to pull their shutters down. Even big and booming businesses have been hit hard. Companies have been forced to take the path of either job or salary cut to survive.
The pandemic has affected the global economy as much as or even more than the great recession of 2008. As Boris Johnson’s government is working on restarting the UK economy, many of the British employers face a double edged-sword to axe staff to save money and keep their businesses running.
While the lockdown has been eased in most parts of the country various businesses are trying to shake off the bad time and start anew. Schemes such as Eat Out to Help Out are encouraging people to support local restaurants, cafes, and pubs, though the second wave of coronavirus spike still looms over our head.
According to the reports chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that government support for the scheme is going down and the firms will have to make a compulsory 5% contribution from this month.
With the government’s intention of winding down it scheme by the October, many employees face the sad reality of losing their jobs like the tens of thousands of people who have already faced the heat of this crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way businesses used to work.
Since March, the wage subsidy scheme has kept almost nine million people in work as the government covered as much as 80 percent of staff salaries up to £2,500 each month.
It is important to note that most of the economies around the globe were already suffering even before the pandemic and this just accelerated the process. In the last week it was brought to notice that more than 8,000 high street jobs could be on the chopping block as there coronavirus has taken an extreme toll on the industries.
Food behemoths have faced the biggest challenge in the history of time as people have been locked indoors, and even if they are going out their concern over safety is keeping them from going to restaurants and bars. Reports have it that administrators at burger chain Byron, Currys PC World and WH Smith (SMWH.L) could axe down several employees owing to the extreme slowdown.
Pizza Express is also looking at closing down up to 15 percent, which amounts to 67 restaurants across the country which in turn can put around 1100 employees out of work.
Moving to the hospitality sector, Wetherspoons (JDW.L) revealed its plan to cut 130 head office roles as the situation gets tough with every passing day.
The story of job bloodbath goes on. While Hays travels says it had to fire 878 employees out of approximately 4500 jobs, Dixon’s Carphone (DC.L) slashed 800 store management jobs in an overhaul. DW Sports have been observed putting 1700 jobs at risk as the administration collapsed. Even British Airways (BA) on Friday announced that it will have to cut almost 10000 jobs marking it a “Black Friday.” Additionally, M&Co announced that it would shut 47 stores, which would put around 380 jobs at risk.
Previously, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) announced that ending the furlough scheme in October would be a mistake since it could put 1.2 million people out of their jobs — though the Treasury pledged to pay employers who keep their staff on until January 2021.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) the official unemployment is set to rise to almost 10 percent and remain above the present level of 3.9 percent until 2024.


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WPC Reveals Name and Logo for its Cordless Kitchen Standard
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) today revealed the name and logo of its wireless power standard for kitchen appliances. The Ki (pronounced “key”) Cordless Kitchen standard is represented by a logo that will distinguish standard-compliant products such as rice cookers, toasters, blenders, coffee makers, air fryers and more. The Ki Cordless Kitchen logo and mark represent safety and interoperability for wireless power for cordless kitchen devices, much like the Qi logo does for mobile devices. Live demonstrations of appliances based on the draft Ki Cordless Kitchen standard will be on display at IFA Next in Berlin this week.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190903005252/en/
With the new Ki Cordless Kitchen standard, power transmitters can be neatly hidden beneath countertops, allowing cordless appliances to be simply and intuitively placed on the counter to safely and efficiently receive up to 2.2kW of power. New induction cooktops can also incorporate the cordless kitchen technology. In addition to normal induction cooking, such cooktops can also power Ki Cordless Kitchen appliances.
To ensure safe operation, the Ki Cordless Kitchen standard prevents power from being transferred when other items, such as keys, phones, bank cards, or other objects are placed on the transmitter spot. This not only prevents items from being damaged or heated, but also allows for flexible use of kitchen space, as the same counter space can be used for food preparation, cooking, eating or even reading the newspaper. Without the hassle of the power cord, appliances can be easily stored when not in use, creating a clean, modern and uncluttered look and feel to the kitchen.
“Ultimately, the Ki Cordless Kitchen standard will change the way we interact with our kitchens,” said Hans Kablau, chair of the WPC’s Kitchen Work Group. “Not only will the standard allow everything from chopping vegetables to cooking to reading the newspaper to all take place on the same surface, it also enables a whole new category of smart cookware. These smart pans can be simply placed on a power transmitter spot and allow consumers to cook on their counters just as they would on their stove. With Ki Cordless Kitchen, consumers will experience an unprecedented convenience in their kitchens that they won’t want to live without.”
The Ki Cordless Kitchen standard works with any non-metal countertop or table surface, including marble, slate, granite, laminates, wood and many others. Enabled appliances communicate with the transmitter through near-field communication (NFC), a safe, inexpensive and pervasive technology currently used around the world in bankcards, door locks, passports, transport tickets, and more.
To drive the adoption of the Ki Cordless Kitchen standard, WPC is applying the same collaboration and commitment to quality that ushered in the widespread adoption of the Qi standard for wireless charging for smartphones and other mobile devices -- now part of 4,500 certified products in use today. Current WPC members, including prominent manufacturers, are collaborating to develop the new Ki Cordless Kitchen standard.
The draft specification of the Ki Cordless Kitchen standard is currently available for WPC members to support the continued development of the Ki Cordless Kitchen ecosystem. For more information about the new standard, visit www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/kitchen.
IFA Next 2019
Ki Cordless Kitchen will be on display in the WPC’s booth at IFA Next. Visit Hall 26, Stand 385 to learn more about how Ki Cordless Kitchen appliances will change the kitchen experience.
About the Wireless Power Consortium
Established in 2008, the Wireless Power Consortium is an open, collaborative standards development group of more than 570 company members around the globe. WPC’s members include Apple, ASUS, Belkin, Bosch, Canon, ConvenientPower, Dell, De’Longhi, Delphi, E.G.O., Google, Haier, Huawei, IKEA, Lenovo, LG, MediaTek, Mophie, NXP, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony, TDK, Verizon Wireless and Xiaomi.
These companies -- large and small, competitors and ecosystem partners, from all parts of the industry and all parts of the globe -- collaborate for a single purpose: to design and evolve the world’s most useful, safe and efficient standards for wireless power. This includes the Qi standard (up to 15W) for mobile devices and the Ki Cordless Kitchen standard (up to 2.2kW) for kitchen appliances. For more information, visit www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com.
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Ipsen to Present New Data at 13th Annual Conference of the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA 2019)20.9.2019 16:30:00 CEST | Press release
Regulatory News: Ipsen (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) today presents results from the matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) of cabozantinib (Cabometyx®) versus regorafenib (Stivarga®) for the second-line treatment (2L) of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (aHCC) who received sorafenib as the only prior systemic therapy. Using data from the Phase III CELESTIAL and RESORCE trials, the MAIC showed that cabozantinib offers greater efficacy versus regorafenib. Using data from the Phase III CELESTIAL and RESORCE trials, the MAIC showed that in the 2L CELESTIAL sub-population who had received sorafenib as the only prior systemic therapy, cabozantinib significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS), with an additional 2.4 months provided vs. regorafenib (5.6 months vs. 3.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI): 4.90-7.26], p<0.05). Median overall survival (OS) was also favorable with cabozantinib (11.4 months vs. 10.8 months), though statistical significance was not met
RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1 Smart LiDAR Sensor Wins AutoSens Awards 201920.9.2019 13:30:00 CEST | Press release
On September 18, 2019, RoboSense announced at Brussels, Belgium that its flagship product RS-LiDAR-M1 Smart LiDAR Sensor has been awarded the elite AutoSens Awards trophy in the “Best Automotive Safety System” category, given to only the highest-rated innovative product or technology in the automotive industry. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190920005309/en/ Robosense Along With Other Winnners At The Autosens Awards Ceremony At Brussels, Belgium (Photo: Business Wire) True autonomous driving requires human-like advanced sensing of the environment for driving with little or no human input. The safety of passengers and passers-by is always the priority concern for autonomous driving. When the RS-LiDAR-M1 is integrated into the current autonomous driving car perception system, it overcomes the weaknesses of millimeter wave radar and camera technologies on identifying obstacles, and eliminates car accidents, such
Boehringer Ingelheim Partners with Inflammasome Therapeutics to Develop Novel Therapies for Patients with Retinal Diseases20.9.2019 12:00:00 CEST | Press release
Boehringer Ingelheim and Inflammasome Therapeutics Inc. (Inflammasome) today announced they have entered into a co-development and license agreement to develop up to three therapies for patients with retinal diseases. By combining Inflammasome’s unique intravitreal (IVT) drug delivery technologies with Boehringer Ingelheim’s compounds from its retinal disease pipeline portfolio, Boehringer Ingelheim aims to develop novel therapies for retinal diseases. In 2019 there were an estimated 82 million patients in the seven key countries (U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K., Spain, Italy, France) affected by one of the three major forms of retinal disease: Age related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic macular edema (DME). Globally, the prevalence rates of these and other retinal diseases are expected to increase over the next 10 years primarily due to aging populations and the global diabetes epidemic. Despite therapeutic advances in some disease areas during the past
Visa B2B Connect Expands to 32 New Countries and Announces Integration With Infosys20.9.2019 11:00:00 CEST | Press release
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced that its Visa B2B Connect network has doubled its reach – from 30 global trade corridors at launch in June 2019, to 62, with the goal to expand to over 100 countries in 2020. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190920005082/en/ Visa B2B Connect (Graphic: Business Wire) In addition, Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, is integrating with the Visa B2B Connect network to bring Visa B2B Connect platform access to their participating financial institutions worldwide. Through this new connection, participating financial institutions worldwide can take advantage of the ability to quickly and securely process corporate cross-border payments globally through Visa B2B Connect.1 “Visa B2B Connect is a fast, secure and more efficient network, designed specifically to overcome obstacles in the cross-border corporate payments space,” said Alan Koenigsbe
Open Day at ISAE-SUPAERO!20.9.2019 09:53:00 CEST | Press release
As part of the Science Festival, this year organized on the theme of “Talking about Science, Imagining the Future”, ISAE-SUPAERO will open up its entire campus to the public on Saturday, October 12th from 10 am to 6 pm. Intended for families, companies, partners, journalists and alumni, this event should bring in over 3,000 attendees, as was the case in the three previous years! The program for the day includes many opportunities to discover science today and our vision of the science of the future, with the challenges this entails for the future of our planet. On the program: ➢ Visits to the laboratories and research departments with flight simulators ➢ Visit to the aeroacoustic wind tunnel, unique in Europe, ➢ Demonstrations: how to fly an airplane, Enoskelet, augmented humans, aeroelasticity, drones, use of the gyroscopic effect in space systems, piezoelectric effect, lasers for communicating at the speed of light on Earth and in space, the infinitely small in 3D, Robot Firefighter
William Priest to Step Down as CEO in 2020, Will Remain at Firm as Executive Chairman and Co-CIO20.9.2019 07:00:00 CEST | Press release
Epoch Investment Partners, Inc., announced that William Priest will step down as the firm's CEO effective April 1, 2020. He will become Epoch's Executive Chairman and will continue to lead the investment team and serve as co-CIO. He will also retain his portfolio management responsibilities, including his lead portfolio manager role with Epoch's Global Choice and Global Absolute Return strategies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190920005076/en/ Philipp Hensler (Photo: Business Wire) Philipp Hensler, Epoch's President and COO, will become the firm's CEO. Hensler brings to the role extensive leadership experience at asset management firms globally. His earlier background as a portfolio manager has imbued him with an investment-oriented perspective that aligns with Epoch's investment-centric culture. “Investing remains my lifelong passion," said Priest, who helped found Epoch in 2004. “Best practice suggests a s


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Reminder: Do Not Leave Plastic Water Bottles in Your Hot Car
This past weekend was a scorcher, I know that, you know that. Even though it looks like we have somewhat of a cool down headed our way, the sun will still be shining, and our cars will still get very hot.
We all know the dangers of the summer heat on our vehicles, like truly how hot it can get in your car in just a few minutes, and also the laws about breaking windows if you happen to see an animal in a car.
With that in mind, do you know about the potential dangers that could happen if you leave a water bottle in your car during the extreme heat? According to ABC7NY
Experts said the combination of soaring temperatures and the plastic bottle make it a fire hazard. The risk comes from the bottle of water being left in a car that's in direct sunlight.
The water and plastic create a magnifying effect that first responders said could set upholstery or a piece of plastic on fire in a couple of minutes.
I'm totally guilty of having a couple half empty water bottles in my car at all times, usually in the cup holders, this can be dangerous. Experts say your best bet is to keep water bottles out of direct sunlight, like in the trunk, or better yet, in a cooler, and only if you plan to use them right away, too. It isn't a good idea to store bottled water in your car long term, especially during the summer months, you know, because how hot the water gets, and the plastic bottles and such.
Summer is far from over, Hudson Valley, make sure you are taking the necessary steps to stay safe, and cool.


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Send this profile to a friend
Intermodal Cartage Co. Inc.
News from The Business Journals
Jun 27, 2014, 6:00 am EDT
Memphis has in the past year reaped the benefits of the trucking industry’s dramatic recovery – a recovery that has locally spurred high-profile expansions of vehicle fleets and facilities, creating hundreds of new jobs.
Jun 21, 2013, 6:00 am EDT
The first round of the 2nd annual Memphis Business Journal Social Madness competition is over and the top eight vote-getters in all three categories h ...
Jun 18, 2013, 3:20 pm EDT
Intermodal Cartage Co. is ramping up and expanding its My Truck lease-to-own program, a business tool that adds to its owner-operator pool.
Jun 18, 2013, 1:14 pm EDT
The first round of the Memphis Business Journal’s Social Madness competition is over and the top eight vote-getters have been shuffled into brackets. ...
May 9, 2013, 3:32 pm EDT
IMC Cos. has reached an agreement to purchase Memphis-based Express America Trucking Inc.
Jan 25, 2013, 6:00 am EST
Given the current interest rate environment, the cost of borrowing remains extremely attractive. That, coupled with some pent-up demand, has motivated ...
Oct 11, 2012, 5:27 pm EDT
The importance of transportation and logistics to the Mid-South is apparent from Mayor A C Wharton speaking at the Memphis World Trade Club’s next mee ...
Aug 2, 2012, 1:43 pm EDT
Charlie McGee, vice president of international solutions with Averitt Express Inc., will be at the Memphis World Trade Club August meeting, talking ab ...
Jul 13, 2012, 6:00 am EDT
A Memphis-based provider of intermodal transportation services recently expanded into Alabama with an office in Birmingham, citing local talent and No ...
Jun 29, 2012, 6:00 am EDT
Sartain, a native Memphian, has logistics in his blood. His father worked for more than 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service, while his sister has wor ...
Mar 9, 2012, 6:00 am EST
At this point, people are becoming more important to manufacturing only to assist and maintain robotic and automated equipment that does most of the w ...
Feb 10, 2012, 12:09 pm EST
Maersk Inc. is selling subsidiary Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI) to private investment firm Littlejohn & Co. LLC, marking a leading steamship line fur ...
Sep 23, 2011, 6:00 am EDT
Sep 2, 2011, 6:00 am EDT
George was born and raised in Franklin, Tenn. In 1982, he and his wife, Melinda, moved to Memphis to start Intermodal Cartage Co. Since then, George h ...
Mar 18, 2011, 6:00 am EDT
IMC Cos., a Memphis-based intermodal shipping company, has invested about $12 million in the acquisition of three new container yards in Dallas, Houst ...


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Apple often ships new products these days with a very dramatic, somewhat corny video featuring people using the product in emotional situations -- like families with babies using FaceTime video chat -- and its executives saying profound things about the product's design -- like design guru Jony Ive saying how some aspect of the device is revolutionary and changes the way we think about something.
Well, it appears Nokia can do it, too! Sort of. Check out its video for its newest product, the X3 "Touch and Type" feature phone. This isn't the new flagship Nokia N8 smartphone that it's supposedly launching in London tomorrow, but appears to be the company's effort to bring touchscreens into its lower-end models.
Either way, the video is appropriately corny, if Nokia is really trying to look like Apple. (Though, appropriately, it's not as well-made as Apple's videos, which is an issue Nokia is dealing with in smartphones, too.)
Side note: Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who is supposedly on the chopping block, is not quoted in the X3 press release. Only Mary McDowell, executive vice president of Mobile Phones, who is one of the people we've seen listed as a possible replacement.


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DPVR, a Shanghai, China-based company specializing in virtual reality (VR) device design and manufacturing, raised a multimillion dollar funding round.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The round was led by Huaqiang Equity and previous investors Qianyi Equity and Lianxin Funds Management company, which was funded by Union Optech (300691.SZ).
The company intends to use the funds to advance its core technology, new product development and hiring more tech talents.
Founded by Sunny (Chaoyang) Chen, DPVR has focused on designing and manufacturing VR headsets for seven years. In June 2022, the company announced that it would enter the mass market with the launch of a new generation 6DoF gaming VR headset based on machine vision technology, bringing users a superior “metaverse” interactive experience.
DPVR 6DoF gaming headset will be available shortly for elite gamers worldwide.


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The Chicago Journal reported that Powell's Books "will shutter its South Loop location, at 828 S. Wabash, on September 1, making it the second bookstore in the neighborhood to announce closure in a matter of weeks." Prairie Avenue Bookshop recently declared it is closing (Shelf Awareness, July 28, 2009) next month.
"We've been in the South Loop since the 1970s and we love the South Loop, love the people," said owner Brad Jonas. "But the rents are getting high. Though it's a problem that's probably good for the neighborhood."
Last weekend's opening of Bertram and Oliver Booksellers, Amesbury, Mass., drew "an appreciative crowd," according to the Daily News, which noted that "curious shoppers have been stopping into the store for weeks leading up to the shop's opening, eager to find out what was moving into the high-profile downtown location."
"I can't tell you how many people popped in," said owner Joanne Wimberly. "And we're not talking about just a few people."
All of the challenging preparatory work has paid off. "I couldn't be happier," she said. "I've never worked so hard my whole life as I have these past weeks, but I've never been so happy. I'm surrounded by books."
Sadly we report that Dave Weich, who has worked at Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., for 11 years, most recently as director of marketing and development, is leaving the company.
In a message to friends, he noted that as one wonderful part of his job, he has interviewed more than 200 authors. "Every two weeks or so, for about 40 minutes, I had the opportunity to ask a smart, articulate stranger about whatever piqued my interest, and then transcribe and edit our conversation for Powells.com."
He also praised the book business. "If there's another industry populated by so many thoughtful, generous, and engaging people, it remains a well-kept secret. . . . I'd consider myself lucky to cross paths and hear from you again."
Weich may be reached at email@example.com and 503-310-3745.
Citing the example of a recent promotion in which James Patterson's The Angel Experiment was offered as a free e-book to help promote more recent work, the Associated Press observed that the bestselling author "is among the biggest brands added to the growing list of free e-book offerings. . . . In recent days, the top three Kindle sellers have been free books: Patterson's, Joseph Finder's Paranoia and Greg Keyes' The Briar King."
But will "free" become readers' price of choice?
"There's always going to be someone who wants free things. What we're trying to do is link free with paid," said Maja Thomas, senior vice-president of digital media at Hachette. "It's like priming the pump."
"What we like to do is make the first book in a series free, usually a series that has multiple books," said Scott Shannon, publisher of the Del Rey/Spectra imprint at Random House. "It's a huge hot-button topic we've been discussing within our division and at the corporate level. We have had phenomenal success with using free books to get people to buy others by an author. But in the long term, we have to guard the market. We have to make sure people understand that time and energy goes into writing a book."
"Consumers love free--free is a good price. But the opportunity they present to publishers is to experiment, and I stress experiment," said Ellie Hirschhorn, Simon & Schuster's chief digital officer.
Author Finder, an early supporter of free promotions, now wonders "if readers will get used to not paying."
"I get a lot of e-mails from people, saying, 'I hadn't even heard of you until I read your free book.' So no question, it does bring in free riders," Finder said. "But I'm also increasingly concerned. There are so many free e-books that basically you could stuff your Kindle or Sony Reader with free books and never have to buy anything."
Red Raven Books & Curiosities, Sandusky, Ohio, "is itself a curiosity: an independent used-book store that seems to be thriving," the Columbus Dispatch reported.
"That's the importance of being well-rooted in the community," said Ali Thompson, who owns the store with her husband, Tom, and also runs the Sandusky Farmers' Market. "We have some of the most loyal customers you could ask for."
At home with books. More than 10,000 volumes--"Gorgeous hardcover jackets. Crisp, mint condition pages. First edition copies."--fill Kevin Kinley's house in Walkersville, Md., which serves as warehouse and bookstore for First Place Books. The Frederick News-Post reported that Kinley sells 90% of his books through ABEbooks.com," though "visitors are welcome by appointment." He averages 900 sales per year at $100 each.
Niche book marketing in Kenya. "Naomi Ogutu reckons niche products have the potential to generate more earnings if they capture the hearts and minds of clients," according to Business Daily. She set up "the Nairobi Management Books Centre at Anniversary Towers a few months ago. Mrs. Ogutu and her husband are currently selling only management books targeting MBA students."
Ogutu's bookshop "has joined a growing trend where entrepreneurs are increasingly opting for specialized businesses, especially within the proximity of learning institutions. Next door is the Uppercase Law Bookshop, which stocks books on law."
The Independent featured "Indy Choice: Best of the new books."
Zachary Marcus, marketing director at Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, Vt., from 2002-2005, has returned to the company as its community connection coordinator. In his new position, Marcus will work on new approaches to author and community events; develop and expand the bookstore's community programs, book groups, kid’s programming, public and press relations; and generate new activities and programs. Marcus has worked in the book industry for many years, most recently operating his book consulting business, Maverick Media Projects.
"I am very pleased to have Zach's rare combination of strategic thinking ability and communication skills back with us,” said Chris Morrow, Northshire's owner and general manager. “He will be immensely valuable during these tumultuous times in the book business."


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DiscountVouchers.co.uk Sources New Dining Out Deals for March
Released on: March 19, 2012, 12:32 am
Author: Oliver Jones
Industry: Retail, Internet & Online,
Food & Beverage
Pizza Express, Burger King and Pizza Hut all on show with
budget-stretching deals from voucher codes website
19 March 2012 – Online retail codes specialist DiscountVouchers.co.uk is helping
Brits to enjoy more eating out for their budgets this March thanks to it sourcing
new restaurant deals. Shoppers trust DiscountVouchers.co.uk to save them money at
more than 800 retailers and restaurants, with the site this week offering new deals
redeemable at famous names Burger King, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut.
Enjoying some quality pizza without spending a fortune can be done this month thanks to the latest deals sourced for Pizza Hut. DiscountVouchers.co.uk has made available new Pizza Hut vouchers which UK diners can use to enjoy 5 Special Pizzas, 1 Special Price. Enjoy an 11”
Italian Meat Feast, Margherita, Veg Supreme, Pepperoni or Hawaiian for just £5 each. Restaurant, Collection or Delivery.
The most popular restaurants feature regularly on DiscountVouchers.co.uk, and this week another top name on show is Burger King. Flame-grilled burgers and sandwiches can be had from the DiscountVouchers.co.uk site right now using new Burger King vouchers to get deals like Get Any £1.99 Sandwich Deal Any Day with a Wild Card.
Another of the UK's most popular pizza parlours on show in the new deals on DiscountVouchers.co.uk right now is Pizza Express. Families can look forward to fresh pizza and pasta thanks to new Pizza Express vouchers offering 25% Off Your Food Bill and 4 Classic or Leggera pizzas for £20.
Doug Scott, managing director of DiscountVouchers.co.uk, says, “Because we stay on
top of all the very latest deals all the time we can offer our users great dining
deals like these. The new offers for Burger King, Pizza Hut and Pizza Express can
help diners enjoy more for their budget this March."
DiscountVouchers.co.uk offers consumers money saving deals at major high street
brands and specialist retailers, including stores like Tesco, Marks & Spencer,
Sainsbury’s, Travelodge, First Choice, lastminute.com and Boden.
For more information visit www.discountvouchers.co.uk
DiscountVouchers.co.uk features the latest money saving offers from a growing range
of retailers, all updated in real time. Designed to help consumers save money with
both leading high street brands and specialist retailers, DiscountVouchers.co.uk
offers one of the widest choices of discounts available.
Part of ASAP Ventures Ltd, the company behind the award winning Carrentals.co.uk
price comparison site, DiscountVouchers.co.uk is committed to offering a growing
range of the best savings available online.
DiscountVouchers.co.uk (Asap Ventures)


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Police in Sugar Land, Texas, have asked for help identifying two men who stole $2,300 worth of video games from a Walmart store on April 6.
Security footage released by the Sugar Land Police Department shows the two men at a Walmart Supercenter using a key to open a cabinet containing video games. They then load up their bags with the games, before leaving the store.
According to police, the incident occurred at approximately 3.15 am. Descriptions of the men were included in the department’s Facebook post about the theft, and they urged anybody with any information to come forward. Credit: Sugar Land Police Department via Storyful


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TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's central bank is making it easier for cash-strapped companies to get funding in response to the growing economic devastation from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bank of Japan decided at a meeting Monday to ease monetary policy, including expanding the purchase of commercial papers and corporate bonds, which work to deliver cash to companies.
In a move that was widely expected, the central bank also decided to remove the ceiling on its purchases of government bonds. It already has been purchasing trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars') worth of government bonds to counter deflation.
Its latest steps are similar to what central banks around the world are doing to curtail the massive damage the outbreak is unleashing on company profits and business activity.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 2.4% by midday Monday.
"Japan's economy has been in an increasingly severe situation due to the impact of the spread of the coronavirus at home and abroad," the Bank of Japan said in a statement.
Additional monetary easing may be needed, and the central bank was closely monitoring the situation, it said.
The bank issued a separate statement reiterating that the economy was in a serious state but was expected to improve once the impact from the pandemic declines. It also warned much remains unclear.
Japan has reported about 13,000 coronavirus cases so far, and fewer than 400 deaths. As is true elsewhere, the number of confirmed cases is thought to understate the actual number of those who may have been infected.
Restaurants, concerts and other events have closed, and tourism is practically at a standstill. Auto factories have suspended production and people are being asked to work from home and stay home.
Japan's economy, the world's third largest, is dependent on exports, centered around products like cars and electronics goods.
But it's also driven by small and medium size businesses, which analysts say are at major risk from the social distancing restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
The economy contracted at a 7.1% annual rate during the October-December period and is thought to be already in a recession, though data for the full first quarter of this year have not yet been released.


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The Regina Police Service is currently investigating multiple frauds in which local businesses – vehicle accessory businesses and construction businesses – have been targeted for large amounts of money.
Information provided to police indicates suspects are requesting to make large purchases over the phone, by text message, or by email. The orders are typically for multiple items, totaling thousands of dollars. Upon placing the order, credit card information is given over the phone from the suspect to employees of the business. By the time the business is notified that the credit card and identification used to make the purchase was fraudulent, the items have already been picked up from the store.
As a result of an increase in these frauds, the Regina Police service is advising local businesses to remain diligent in their payment practices. We advise businesses to always request to see a physical credit card, as well as matching photo identification in person prior to a large sale.
Anyone who believes they have been a victim of a similar fraud to their business is asked to contact the Regina Police Service at 306-777-6500.


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Five years later and restaurants can’t take a hint. According to a recent study conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 91 percent of the kiddie meals at the top 50 restaurant chains do not meet the nutritional standards of the Kids LiveWell healthy eating initiative set forth by National Restaurant Association. A related study conducted five years ago by the same organization, found that restaurants received similarly poor marks.
“The results of this updated study were disappointing,” said Dr. Ameena Batada, lead author of the study. “We were hoping for more of an improvement.”
Obesity is a huge problem in the U.S. — a whopping one-in-three American children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With families increasingly eating out instead of enjoying home cooked meals, these unhealthy menu options for the kiddos could be adding to the obesity epidemic.
But all hope isn’t lost. Dr. Batada offers some advice for helping your kids make healthy decisions when dining out.
“Plan ahead with your kids and discuss the options ahead of time,” she suggests.
Restaurants are increasingly posting their menus and nutrition info on their websites. Take a look at the nutrition info before you head out the door and be sure to discuss the dining options with your kids.
Dr. Batada notes that more restaurants are offering healthier side options like fruits and vegetables. Encouraging your kids to swap out the fries for a healthier side could really change the calorie count of their meal. Finally, you should always have your kids opt for water instead of a sugary sweet beverage.
Do you take pains to make sure your kids eat healthy, even at restaurants? Let us know in the comments.


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Drug firm GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals reported a 16.56 percent rise in its standalone net profit to Rs 123.03 crore for the quarter ended March 31. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 105.55 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, GSK said in a filing to the BSE. Its standalone revenue from operations stood at Rs 751.22 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 748.62 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago.
A Vaidheesh, managing director, GlaxoSmithKline India, shared his views and outlook.
“Our topline sales grew by 9 percent and the revenues -- because of the fact that it was the other income which got moved out compared to last year -- we had a 5 percent price growth and 4 percent volume growth," Vaidheesh said.
"Compared to the market that we are operating in, the last quarter of 2018-2019, the acute market - where we operate - grew by 6 percent and we grew by 9 percent,” he said.
The acute market is expected to grow about 7-8 percent in FY20 and GSK should be growing much faster than that, Vaidheesh said.
“Augmentin, Calpol and Betnovate are all top brands. Quite interestingly in 2018-2019, all these brands grew faster than the market. 2018-2019 is one of the best performing years for us. As an overall year, we ended up at about 10 percent growth and about 20 percent EBITDA. So all the brands have done exceedingly well mainly because of the fact that our supply situation has improved,” said Vaidheesh.


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Sony India’s press conference on Wednesday, where it will reveal launch plans for the PS4 in India, will be live-streamed.
The PlayStation India Facebook page has posted a link to a page that will supposedly host a live feed of the press conference, which is set to take place at 12:45 pm.
The press conference will be attended by Sony India managing director Kinichiro Hibi, PlayStation head for Middle East and India Robert Fisser, and PlayStation India country manager Atindriya Bose.
Sony is expected to reveal the launch date and price of the PS4 console and its peripherals.
The live-stream will be hosted on this page.
Sign up for the free MCV India newsletterhere.


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Hyundai has announced that all their vehicles will be equipped with AMT gearboxes by 2018. The gearboxes are touted to be self manufactured and will come equipped on mid-level hatchbacks and entry-level sedans.
Hyundai Motor India Limited recently celebrated 20 years of its operations in India. It has clearly set its sights on becoming the market leader and the most beloved automobile brand in India. To aid this rising dominion of Hyundai in the Indian Market, they have come up with the most idealistic solution of introducing Automated Manual Transmissions (AMT) in their production line-up by 2018.
AMT uses an electronic control unit and a hydraulic system that supervises the use of the clutch and the gear shifting. It allows the driver to, either sequentially or fully automatically, change gear without using the clutch. It adds to the ease and convenience of a driver with the help of clutch-less gear shifts and concurrently is cheaper than a conventional automatic gearbox. This calls for novices to cherish and easy commuters to smile. So it is no wonder that the demand for AMT cars has gone up considerably. There is an exigency to bring about a balance between an aching left foot and a savings-focussed pocket and the AMT strives to fulfil that.
AMT technology has helped manufacturers boost volume sales in the mid-level hatchback and compact sedan segments. The difference in cost between AMT and manual transmission versions of cars is not very great. Moreover, the AMT does not cost as much as a conventional automatic gearbox.
Mr. Young Key Koo, Managing Director of HMIL, did not disclose which product would get the AMT, but said that gradually, all models in the model range will receive the technology. Hyundai’s adversaries like Maruti-Suzuki, have already stepped into the realm of AMTs by introducing it in 2014 starting with the Celerio and has reaped huge rewards in terms of rise in sales. Hyundai is rumoured to launch a small car in 2018 to rival the Renault Kwid. The car, codenamed Hyundai AH, could debut the Korean carmaker’s AMT technology by 2018.
Hyundai Cars In India To Get AMT
– The whole range will be equipped with AMTs for better volume sales by 2018
– AMTs provide the advantages of lesser cost, rider flexibility and better fuel economy
– This change comes after its competitors like Maruti Suzuki, Renault have already installed AMTs in their line-ups
– Likely to be introduced in Hyundai AH, a small car to rival the Renault Kwid by 2018


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Aspen Saturday Market vendors hit the street today
Food & Wine isn’t the only game in town. The Aspen Saturday Market begins its season today with crafts, food and the first pickings of produce for anyone champing at the bit for fresh greens.The market is starting a week early this year, with an abbreviated selection of vendors who will be lining Hopkins Avenue outside City Hall from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Next week, the market returns to full force, taking up a block of Hunter Street as well.Just one produce vendor, DeVries Farm Market of Grand Junction, will make the trip today. Watch for more next week.The pickings are slim this early in the season, according to grower Bill DeVries, but shoppers will find fresh broccoli, spinach, rhubarb and green chards, peas, cherries and fresh garlic at the stand today, along with a selection of bedding plants. DeVries has also acquired some greenhouse-ripened tomatoes from another Colorado grower.Some growers saw their cherry crop nipped by a cold snap, and DeVries said he lost his apricot crop, but he’s got a line on some from another grower. They’re just not ready yet. For today, it’s cherries.Joining the farmers this season will be Sustainable Settings of Carbondale, with fresh eggs, meats and produce.While produce is limited to the DeVries stand today, shoppers will also find baked goods, Kettle Korn, Jeff’s Italian Ice, Cloud Nine Brownies and the Highwire Ranch’s organic buffalo and elk products.Local craft vendors will also hit the street; they’ll be joined this year by bronze sculptor David Nelson and marble sculptor Cheryl Haddock.The Jeanne Walla Trio kicks off the market’s slate of musical entertainment this season. The jazz combo will perform from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. today.The ever-popular cooking demonstrations by local chefs are scheduled to start in July.The market runs through Oct. 29.Janet Urquhart’s e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.org
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Six local artists will debut new works Friday as part of the Snowmass Art Walk, an initiative to connect the town’s existing public art with new installations this summer.


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Netflix subscription price set to be slashed soon
Netflix subscription will be more affordable after the streaming platform took a major decision. Know details.
Netflix will soon be available at cheaper rates for you- the latest update may drop by the end of this year. Netflix had already shared its intention to bring advertisements on the platform with everyone after its revenues suffered a big fall recently. Now, in what will come as a pleasant surprise for users, it seems that Netflix subscription price is set to be slashed, as promised. That means users can enjoy the exclusive content at a more affordable rate than before, although all the shows and movies will come with ads. The news comes directly from Microsoft as well as Netflix after both had announced a partnership.
Netflix officially revealed in a blogpost, “In April we announced that we will introduce a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan for consumers, in addition to our existing ads-free basic, standard and premium plans. Today we are pleased to announce that we have selected Microsoft as our global advertising technology and sales partner.”
At the same time, Microsoft's head Satya Nadella took to Twitter to confirm the partnership. His tweet reads, "We're thrilled Netflix has selected Microsoft as its advertising technology and sales partner. We want publishers to have more long-term viable ad monetization platforms, so more people can access the content they love wherever they are."
When will Netflix drop prices?
Unfortunately, there's still no confirmation yet as to exactly when Netflix will launch the ad-based subscription plans and drop prices. Also, even though Microsoft has confirmed it will help Netflix cut the cost of the subscription, but no one knows how many ads will be served either.
Netflix is saying it is still early days and there is a lot of work that needs to be done before the start of this new consumer subscription plan. Netflix further said, “But our long-term goal is clear: More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers. We're excited to work with Microsoft as we bring this new service to life. ”


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Ashden Award for Energy and Agriculture, supported by the Waterloo Foundation
Costa Rican dairy farmers are enjoying higher incomes thanks to new specially designed solar water heaters that supply hot water for washing their milking equipment and milk tanks. The cost of electricity is very high in Costa Rica, making heating water a major expense for a dairy farmer – but failing to use hot water would compromise the quality and cleanliness of their milk. Solar enterprise Enertiva developed the water heaters especially for the dairy farmers, teaming up with the milk-purchasing cooperative Dos Pinos, which lends the farmers the money to buy them. With the costs of the heaters paid back within a year from the saving in electricity, greater prosperity is coming to both the farmers and their communities.


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WELLESLEY, MA --(Marketwired - January 19, 2016) - Whey ingredients should continue to grow in both value and volume from 2015 to 2020. Stable demand in core markets -- the U.S. and countries in the E.U. region, will drive growth. BCC Research reveals in its new report that increasing demand in emerging economies, especially in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, also will move the market.
Whey protein ingredients are currently playing a key role in effectively and efficiently replacing milk in many edible products. Primarily, whey proteins were used in intensive sports nutritional products and were restricted to usage by athletes. However, with increased awareness among mass consumers, the consumption of this commodity has increased in the form of nutrition bars, nutritional beverages, infant nutritional formula and weight-management supplements.
The global market should reach $13.5 billion in 2020 from $9.2 billion in 2015, reflecting a five-year annual compound growth (CAGR) of 6.5%. The food and beverage segment will increase at a five-year CAGR of 5% to grow from $4.3 billion in 2015 to $5.5 billion in 2020. Sports nutrition as a segment is expected to reach $1.7 billion and $2.7 billion in 2015 and 2020, respectively, increasing at a CAGR of 9%.
Fundamentally, increased focus on health across age groups and gender is driving adoption of whey protein beyond sporting activities. Whey protein demand overall is being driven by widespread application across end markets -- from health food, bakery, confectionery, functional nutrition, dairy, ice cream and other processed food. Demand is being driven by change in consumer behavior toward the healthy-food segment, which is a global phenomenon. Whey derivatives are also finding increased adoption in niche categories such as infant formula products.
Emerging economies in Asia and Latin America are driving the demand for whey ingredients, as well. Steady economic growth in key emerging economies in these regions has raised increased disposable income and a burgeoning middle-class population that appears ready to spend more on lifestyle and health food. This is significant especially in volume terms, with large populations in these markets.
"Whey proteins are currently used in newly released food items that are very popular in the Asia-Pacific region. Primarily, people within the age group of 25 to 45 years are key consumers of such products. They include mainly office workers who require products to alleviate stress at regular intervals," says BCC Research analyst Pankaj Chaubey. "In Latin America, the whey protein market generated $411 million in 2014 and is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 5.3% to reach $565 million in 2020. In 2014, two countries, Brazil and Argentina, collectively accounted for nearly 39% of this market."
Whey Protein Products: Global Markets (FOD072A) analyzes regional export and import trade in volume terms, with application breakdowns in six key categories: bakery, chocolate confectionery, dairy, functional nutrition, ice cream, and other processed food. Analyses of global market drivers and trends, with data from 2014, estimates for 2015, and projections of CAGRs through 2020 also are provided.
About BCC Research
BCC Research publishes market research reports that make organizations worldwide more profitable with intelligence that drives smart business decisions. These reports cover today's major industrial and technology sectors, including emerging markets. For more than 40 years we've helped customers identify new market opportunities with accurate and reliable data and insight, including market sizing, forecasting, industry overviews, and identification of significant trends and key market participants. We partner with analysts who are experts in specific areas of industry and technology, providing unbiased measurements and assessments of global markets. Recently selected as the world's greatest market research company, BCC Research is a unit of Eli Global, LLC. Visit our website at www.bccresearch.com. Contact us: (+1) 781-489-7301 (U.S. Eastern Time), or email email@example.com.
Editors and reporters who wish to speak with the analyst should contact:


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|May 16, 2007|
U.K. Consumers Place a Premium on Sustainability
|London, UK -- Concern for the environment has prompted one of the most complete and speedy revolutions in consumer attitudes ever seen, according to new research, although most people surveyed had an incomplete grasp of what exactly makes a company green. |
A survey of more than 1,500 British adults by the branding consultancy Landor Associates, the research agency Penn, Schoen and Berland, and P.R. firm Cohn & Wolfe, found that 80 percent of the population believe it's important for companies to be environmentally friendly.
The idea that everyone should embrace some level of green philosophy and behavior is now clearly in the mainstream, the survey's authors said, a startling reversal from results of a similar study a year ago, when "the green agenda was out on the lunatic fringe for most people," said Phil Gandy, Landor's director.
Although respondents expressed a good deal of concern about climate change, overpopulation and other environmental issues, the results show that consumers are not entirely clear what exactly it takes to be green.
British consumers as deeply concerned and pessimistic about the state of the environment but not quite sure what to do about it. Climate change is seen as the most important environmental issue by two thirds of those questioned and more than 70 percent of those asked rate society's performance in addressing the issue as neutral or worse.
But when it comes to defining what exactly being green means in terms of their own actions, consumers focus primarily on reducing their waste rather than reducing consumption. More than half of the respondents said that they are driving fuel-efficient cars, and have also begun to wash their cars by hand and without a hose.
Rounding out the list of common green behaviors is recycling plastic bags, followed by the use of products that do not deplete the ozone layer, reducing greenhouse gas emissions comes third, and "supporting organisations that protect the rain forest" comes fourth.
"It is clear that being green means different things to different people," says Gandy. "There is a general awareness of an urgent problem and there is widespread belief that we are all part of that problem. But consumers have not yet come to the view that they need to address their consumption. It seems that most of us are still thinking in terms of reducing waste -- throwing away less, rather than consuming less."
Although the research found that consumers are quite interested in greenness, when it comes to companies and brands, many can't identify what that means. More than 20 percent of the population could not identify any steps a company should take to make itself green.
Despite that uncertainty, The Body Shop was rated far and away the most green company in the U.K. In second place was Smart, a car company that manufactures small, fuel-efficient city vehicles.
The research also shows that companies seeking to reap rewards in the marketplace -- with or without taking serious action toward sustainability -- can do so by marketing themselves as environmentally or ethically concerned. Green brands are perceived as having higher quality and consumers are well prepared to pay a premium for them. Six in ten, for instance, said they will spend more on energy saving household appliances.
What the report makes clear, the authors say, is that consumers want to do the right thing but need substantial help from companies to lead them into action. They add that brands which align themselves with environmental concerns at this relatively early stage of the debate can expect to secure a competitive advantage, given the belief that environmental concern can only grow more prominent in the future.


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HOUSTON - A married couple is accused of injuring a Walmart employee while trying to flee the store parking lot with a stolen television, Kemah police said.
Michael Hocutt, 44, and Ashlie Hocutt, 29, were arrested Saturday at the Walmart on 255 FM 518 in Kemah.
According to police, the couple exited the store without paying for a 50-inch television and got into their vehicle. When confronted by a loss prevention employee, police say, they drove their getaway vehicle into a shopping cart, which in turn, pushed the female employee into a concrete light pole. She suffered minor injuries.
After fleeing the Walmart parking lot, the couple ditched their vehicle nearby and took off running into a wooded area. They were caught and arrested shortly after.
According to court records, the couple had out been out on bond before Saturday's incident. Michael Hocutt was awaiting a hearing on a charge of making a terroristic threat. His wife Ashlie Hocutt was free on bond for a 2012 charge of credit card fraud.
In connection with Saturday's incident, Michael Hocutt is charged with robbery, criminal trespassing, evading arrest and driving with a suspended license.
Ashlie Hocutt is facing charges of theft, evading arrest and criminal trespassing.
Both are being held at the Galveston County Jail.
Phillip Mena will have more on this story today on Local 2 News.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Audi Sport’s R8 LMS GT2 has made its US debut in California at the Monterey Car Week, following its global debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this year. The latest model from Audi Sport incorporates learnings from Audi drivers and race teams.
Featuring the highest specification of the OEM’s naturally aspirated 5.2-liter engine, which generates 640bhp, the Audi R8 LMS GT2 is the most powerful race car Audi Sport customer racing has developed.
Joining the Audi Sport customer-racing line-up, which includes GT3 and GT4, the R8 LMS GT2 is designed for a new formula of GT racing that will be introduced in 2020. For 2020, SRO America has confirmed a five-round GT2 calendar.


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Gene Munster: iPhone 5 lines 83% longer than for iPhone 4S
FORTUNE — Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who has been counting heads at iPhone launches since 2008, says that Friday’s launch of the iPhone 5 in the U.S. was the biggest ever.
In a note to clients issued at 10:00 a.m. he estimates that based on counts at Apple Stores in New York, Boston and Minneapolis, the lines Friday were, on average, 83% longer than those for the iPhone 4S last October.
This despite what he says is a trend of decreasing Apple product lines at flagship store due to the company taking a greater number of online pre-orders.
FYI, team Piper Jaffray’s head count at Apple’s (AAPL) Fifth Avenue store was pretty close to mine (775 vs. 820), which isn’t bad given that we both had to estimate how many hundreds of customers were packed in that pen in front of the big glass cube.


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Siri doesn’t have all the answers, but Apple’s digital assistant continues to get smarter.
Loup Ventures fires 800 questions at the leading digital assistants for its twice-a-year IQ Test to measure the practical use of voice as a means of computing input on smartphones. They are all improving, but not at the same rate.
If you have a query about your prescription drugs, you’re better off asking Google Assistant than Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. That’s the conclusion of a new piece of research, published in the journal Nature Digital Medicine.
While you’re best off asking a human doctor, of course, the research was intended to see how accurate Google, Amazon and Apple’s AI assistants are at explaining the 50 most commonly prescribed medicines.
Google revealed today that it is unifying all of its Home products under the Nest brand. Instead of having smart speakers from Google and smart home speakers from Nest, everything will be Nest. To kick things off, the company debuted a new product too: the Nest Hub Max.
Apple’s latest acquisition could give Siri a better chance at competing against Amazon’s popular voice-power assistant, Alexa.
Pullstring, a San Francisco-based startup that specializes in helping developers design, prototype and deploy voice apps has reportedly been purchased by Apple. The company’s platform helps create voice apps for Alexa and Google Assistant, and will likely help Apple make more tools for Siri.
Sonos is about to add a new weapon to its smart speakers that will help make it even more competitive against Apple’s HomePod.
The company revealed today that it plans to bring Google Assistant to its smart speakers later this year. Beta testing for the new feature has already begun, allowing Google’s Siri-competitor to be the main voice input on some Sonos speaker models.
Smart speakers are something we expect to see a whole lot of at this year’s CES 2019, and the House of Marley isn’t disappointing us with its effort to get things moving.
Among the multiple new products the company has announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the coolest is a portable Bluetooth speaker that runs Google Assistant. All packaged up in a natural bamboo and organic materials package, just as nature intended!
If Siri seems to be of greater service to you lately, an annual IQ test comparing virtual assistants shows its definitely getting smarter.
Loup Ventures annually peppers the various digital assistants with five categories of questions and when it comes to accuracy and comprehension of a user’s question, Google Assistant remains the best. Siri, however, is right behind Google while Amazon’s Alex and Cortana lags behind in that order.
In the battle of digital voice assistants, people often mock Siri for lagging behind competing products from Amazon and Google. During Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, glossed over those failings, calling Siri the “world’s most-used digital assistant.”
What he neglected to mention was the increasing frustration of Siri users expecting more from a voice assistant. From simple requests returning inaccurate results to the inability to performthat he compound actions, Siri was in desperate need of attention going into WWDC. But will the Siri upgrades in iOS 12 do the trick?


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Has KFC found a new way to get white people in trouble with their Black friends and coworkers? Earlier this
KFC has finally done it. The brand is going all in on chicken and waffles. For a limited amount of
Amid a whirlwind of incidents in which Black people have been targeted for doing absolutely nothing, including using a Starbucks restroom and sleeping
David Alan Grier announced on Twitter that he has been cast as the iconic Kentucky Fried Chicken colonel..
theGRIO REPORT - It may look like a rat, but it's definitely chicken.
theGRIO REPORT - A family was dining at an Oklahoma KFC chain when they looked up and realized something surprising


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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — What started off as a casual sharing of hijab styling tutorials on social media unexpectedly flourished into a successful profession as a hijab stylist for a housewife, enabling her to generate a respectable income.
Nursalihah Ahmad Azman Saha, 34, fondly recalls how her career took off at the end of 2022 when requests to curate hijab styles for clients flooded in as her social media followers increasingly recognised her talent and skills.
“People began asking whether I was interested in styling hijabs for others, so I decided why not give it a go and use my abilities and talents.
“In the early stages, I didn’t pursue styling hijabs for brides, and then I got involved in styling models for photoshoots featuring numerous fashion and cosmetic brands to further hone my skills,” she told Bernama.
Transitioning her focus to providing bridal hijab styling services with prices ranging from RM500 to RM700, the mother of two believes that hijab stylists should keep abreast of the latest trends, including those from abroad, to meet the diverse needs of their clientele.
“Customers have a wide range of preferences when it comes to hijab styles, with many opting for shawl and tudung bawal (wide shawl), and lately, there’s been a surge in demand for Turkish hijab styles,” said Nursalihah, who has also received requests from Singapore and Brunei but hasn’t been able to fulfil them due to time constraints.
Looking ahead, the architecture certificate holder from Politeknik Ungku Omar in Perak aims to broaden her bridal hijab fashion collection by incorporating various fabric choices and styles.
Siti Nurliyana A Rahim, 30, makes the most of her makeup and hijab styling skills, acquired through training at the PIZZASCARF Academy, to supplement her income during weekends.
The civil servant said that brides-to-be are increasingly concerned with their overall appearance, not only focusing on makeup and clothing but also making sure their hijab is neat.
She said that opting for a stylist service alongside a makeup artist can guarantee a more meticulous and neat hijab finish for brides.
“For just RM499, my service goes beyond hijab styling; I offer tailored advice on selecting the ideal veil style for the bride, taking into account factors like colour, material, clothing fashion, face shape, and more,” she added.
With more than three years of professional experience, Siti Nurliyana has styled celebrities like Wany Hasrita and Sarah Suhairi and aspires to provide makeup services for esteemed figures like the Queen of Malaysia, should the opportunity arise.
Meanwhile, PIZZASCARF hijab founder Anis Suraya Zulkifly, 31, said that since establishing a hijab consultation programme in 2018, the brand has produced more than 100 stylists throughout the country.
She said that her hijab brand agents, consisting of professionals like physiotherapists and pharmacists, would undergo a two-day training programme, following which their skills would be assessed through their work performance, customer reviews, and engagement on social media.
Anis Suraya explained that hijab styling skills are categorised into five levels, namely junior, which allows stylists to charge RM99, followed by primary (RM199), pro (RM299), pro max (RM399), and master (RM499).
“To move from the Junior level to Primary, stylists must style at least 15 brides,” Anis Suraya said adding that she initiated a hijab styling training programme with the intent of aiding women from different socioeconomic backgrounds in generating income. — Bernama


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X03: Xbox goes Epic
Epic Games' Jay Wilbur (of the Unreal series fame) was on hand at last night's press conference to unveil a brand new multi-title deal between the successful developer and Microsoft. The deal will of course mean new titles for the Xbox and exclusivity for the console and the PC. Microsoft Games Studios will fulfill publishing duties as part of the arrangement.
We've no official word on the titles that Epic and their satellite developer Scion will be making for Redmond, though we reckon Bill's boys have tied up a deal that will see future Unreal titles available on the Xbox and PC only. Hopefully, we'll have some news on these titles soon; which, given Microsoft's Live push, it's a safe bet will be multiplayer enabled.
"We're delighted to be working with Microsoft " commented Jay Wilbur, Vice President of Business Affairs at Epic, "We feel strongly that, in partnership with Microsoft, Epic Games and Scion Studios will provide gamers with spectacular entertainment on Xbox and Windows platforms."
- Large patch arrives to tackle the matchmaking issues with Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- BioWare looking into a bug stopping banter between party members in Dragon Age: Inquisition
- New Assassin's Creed: Unity patch introduces a new visual bug
- Metal Gear Online will return, reveal coming at The Game Awards 2014
- Ever wanted to know which next-gen console would survive a 15-foot drop?
- New Assassin's Creed: Unity patch is a bit on the large side
- Wonder what Zombie mode looks like for Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare? Here's a trailer
- Xbox 360 Titanfall players getting a massive update next week
- Ubisoft pulls the Assassin's Creed: Unity Season Pass, offering free DLC and games to apologize for the problems with the game


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Today, T-Mobile announced what it’s calling the “Concord”—a re-branding of a 2010-era Android smartphone manufactured by China’s mobile powerhouse, ZTE. The phone has a basic 2-megapixel camera and the older Gingerbread version of the operating system. It will be available even to no-contract customers. Sure, it's not super flashy, but hey, a smartphone for a Benjamin is not a bad deal.
T-Mobile is clearly making a play to lure customers in the door with its newly unlimited mobile data plan. The phone is available now for $100 from Walmart with a no-contract Walmart Family Mobile plan, and will also be available in Target starting August 26.


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On Feb. 24, 2016, Gronka Prop Inc. purchased a two bedroom, one bathroom home at 7839 Rutherford Ave., Burbank 60459 from Dariusz Trye for $69,000.
The amount paid for property taxes on this property in 2014 was $2,166.98, 3.14% of the sale price of the home.
The last time this home sold was Jan. 3, 2011. It last sold for $68,000.
The median home sale price in 2015 in Burbank was $5,000. This home sold for 1380.0% of the median home sale price. In the month of February, 19 properties sold in Burbank.


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By Staff writer
New report also says capital values for Dubai apartments see 9% drop over the past year
Residential rents in Dubai fell by 2 percent during the third quarter of 2015, according to a new report by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and its real estate advisory subsidiary MPM Properties.
Capital values for completed apartment units fell 9 percent year-on-year, with the highest drop registered across prime developments, which had seen a substantial rise in the rate of sales since the second half of 2013.
The report added that on the supply front, around 2,000 new units were completed in the quarter, mostly in leasehold areas.
It said the total value of residential apartment transactions fell by 8.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, from AED4.62 billion ($1.25 billion) in Q2 to AED4.22 billion in Q3 2015.
This is in line with past trends, with the third quarter of the year tending to be a relatively quiet period for the real estate market because of the peak summer and holiday season, the report said.
It added that the controlled supply of new office space, coupled with continued positive occupier sentiment, is helping to maintain Dubai’s healthy rental and occupancy levels in the office market.
The Dubai office market remained stable quarter-on-quarter despite a rise in new stock, as demand for office space continued to show an upward trend, mainly from start-up companies. Prime Central Business District (CBD) rents ranged between AED 110-220 per square foot per annum while secondary locations have recorded rents ranges between AED70-200 per sq ft per annum.
The report said Dubai’s retail sector witnessed a marginal drop in footfall and spending during Q3, with a number of major retailers reporting slower sales year-on-year.
"This could be largely attributed to a fall in spending by tourists, who are key drivers of demand," the report added.
“Much of the impact has been noticed across the luxury retail segment due to global currency fluctuations and falling oil prices. However, overall prime retail assets remain strong performers and demonstrate positive growth with waiting lists for space still over-subscribed despite expansions,” said Paul Maisfield, CEO of MPM Properties.


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Google has had architecture firms BIG and Heatherwick Studio working on plans for its new headquarters in Mountain View, California for some time, and we’ve been following the developments at every twist and turn. After a few wrenches in the original plan and some disagreements with the local city council about just how much land the tech giant could build on, Google has finally unveiled a revised design that gives us a better idea of where the project is heading. It might be a subtle way of maintaining a sense of humor about the whole debacle, but the newest version of the HQ design includes a huge tent, not unlike the kind you’d see at a circus.
The tent-like structure is a refined representation of something Google said they wanted all along—vaulted glass canopies instead of traditional roof tops. The original plan was a futuristic metropolis, and the new plan for the Charleston East building retains a similar feel. Google filed detailed building plans as well as a series of elaborate renderings that show the building bustling with employees. In all, Google’s new headquarters will consume 600,000 square feet of building space, plus 45,000 square feet of interior landscaping. To encourage movement between different parts of the campus, the design also includes an 18,500-square-foot “public route” right through the building. The campus will also have 1,200 parking spaces, 660 long-term bike parking spots, 440 short-term bike parking spots, as well as 400 shared bike spaces.
The previous modification to the master plan came last June after Google was shut down by the city council and awarded only one-quarter of the land originally planned for the sprawling new headquarters. The revised plan released at that time called for looping in another plot of land the search engine leader was already leasing. It was obvious that the original design plans created by BIG and Heatherwick Studio would have to change drastically to fit on the new site, but Google has been pretty quiet about the developments until the new plans were filed with the city of Mountain View this week.
Via The Verge
Images via Google


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/2/2014 (1273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
If you’ve ever wanted to start drinking whisky, but were afraid to try, then the Winnipeg Whisky Festival is for you.
Between 300 and 400 would-be whisky drinkers are expected at the Fairmont Hotel Friday night between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
There will be some experts there, too, of course, ready to pass on tips on how to drink various kinds of whisky, what to expect taste-wise as well as how one of the world’s most popular liquors is made.
Rookie whisky drinker Geoff Kirbyson was given a tutorial at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café.


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“Barter” reads a simple sign on Angélica Monasterios’s stall in Cupira, a town on the main road east from Caracas. Her niece painted the sign for her in early February, after soaring inflation and vanishing reserves of hard cash made it hard to do business.
“We accept dollars and euros as well,” she said with a grin, sitting beside rows of handmade yucca wafers, the town’s speciality, balls of pure cacao farmed nearby and hand-carved toys.
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, and was once one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, but its economy has been ravaged by years of runaway inflation. The devastating blackout that struck last week has pushed it to the verge of collapse.
Venezuela officially entered hyperinflation at the end of 2016, and has now endured one of the longest runs of warp-speed price rises in the world, according to Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and one of the world’s leading experts on the phenomenon.
Hanke has logged 58 historical episodes of hyperinflation around the world, and says Venezuela’s is the fourth longest, though nearer the median for rate of price rises. That does not mean an end is in sight. The longest episode Hanke has recorded, in Nicaragua about three decades ago, lasted nearly five years.
The cliched image of hyperinflation is of people rushing to the shops with cash in wheelbarrows. In Venezuela, however, while the value of money crashes, so does the ability to get your hands on it.
Bolívar banknotes are increasingly scarce, probably because cash itself is one of the many things Venezuela is struggling to pay for. The government’s mint no longer works, so it gets banknotes from abroad, and manufacturers expect to be paid in something other than the fast-devaluing notes they produce.
There are a few things in Venezuela for which cash is indispensable, such as bus fares and supplies in very remote areas, but for almost everything else people have found a workaround.
Venezuelans are using barter, dollars and – when the power supply allows – online transfers, debit cards and even cryptocurrencies to scrape together what they need to survive. They can sometimes go for weeks without touching banknotes.
Before the power cut, most people in urban areas relied on online transfers and debit cards to make payments, leaving anyone without a card or internet banking dangerously vulnerable.
Gindel Delgado spent two months excluded from the system, spending all his spare time on Kafkaesque efforts to be able to use money again. He needed a new bank card to access his account, but a shortage of plastic meant his bank refused to issue one.
His salary was paid into his father’s bank account, and the pair sat down every evening to make a list of online transfers to people he owed money to.
“I gave up until I had a week off work,” Delgado said of his long quest to get a new card. He spent that week trekking from branch to branch to find someone who could finally issue him a new card.
On Thursday, US officials told reporters that Washington is considering fresh financial sanctions which could prohibit Visa, Mastercard and other financial institutions from processing transactions in Venezuela.
The restrictions were described as a way to pile pressure on Nicolás Maduro, but if introduced, they will inevitably create more problems for ordinary citizens.
Last week’s devastating blackout – which still afflicts much of the country – has only accelerated Venezuela’s creeping unofficial dollarisation.
With ATMs and card-readers rendered useless, many hotels and shops now only accept dollars. At a supermarket in the wealthy Chacao district, security guards turned away customers without US currency to pay with.
“All this government talk of American imperialism and now we have to use dollars,” said Celina Bareto, whose daughter was inside buying vegetables with the few dollar bills she had lying around the house.
Others without dollars were not so lucky. “I have some dollars saved at home,” said Trina Cedeño, a publicist looking to buy food for her husband and their toddler. “But I was saving them for emergencies, not to buy groceries.”
One butcher in central Caracas said he now makes up to 10% of his sales in dollars, even though they are not technically legal tender. Much of that is from bulk purchases by Venezuelans abroad supporting family back home, but some is cash.
Inflation has made it hard to break even, even with dollars. “Sometimes I will buy a kilo of meat at 10,000 bolívars, sell it in the shop for 14,000, then go back to restock and the wholesale cost is 15,000,” he said. “You can’t keep going like that.”
The scale of price increases is a problem even for economists who want to study them, because systems for measuring inflation in a normal economy stop working as costs soar, Hanke said.
People’s spending priorities shift toward food and other basic necessities as their salaries lose value, so the basket of goods used to calculate inflation, which in the UK includes everything from quiche to sports leggings, becomes less relevant.
Economists would also conventionally spend several days putting together an index of prices, but in Venezuela these are creeping up every day.
“In the normal environment it doesn’t matter if they measure the prices of bread in the beginning, middle or end of the month. With hyperinflation, you’d have to measure them all simultaneously on the same day,” Hanke said. “It becomes almost unfeasible to do it.”
He believes the best way to measure the true level of inflation is to look at the foreign exchange rate, because that now is the basis of the economy. Even prices quoted in bolívars are based on an assessment of the black market exchange rate, he said.
Hanke said: “The measuring rod has already been changed to the US dollar.” The only way out for Venezuela, whether under the government of Nicolás Maduro or his challenger Juan Guaidó, will be making that unofficial measuring rod official, he said.
That could either be by overt dollarisation, or pegging the bolívar securely to another country’s money with hard currency reserves backing every note issued.
“There usually is some end point [to hyperinflation] because one of two things happens. You get a political change, and then you get a currency reform. Or you get the same guy in power and you get a currency reform.”


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Heralding the publication of the Woolard Review, Treasury published its exchange of letters with Chris Woolard confirming the Economic Secretary’s agreement with the recommendation to regulated interest-free BNPL products, and confirming that legislation will be brought forward “as soon as Parliamentary time allows”. Mr Woolard had pointed out in a letter of 19 January that he had agreed with the FCA board (and Charles Randell wrote separately) to highlight his recommendation to bring these products within the regulatory perimeter as soon as possible, particularly given the current interest in the topic and the parliamentary passage of the Financial Services Bill.
The main concern is that, although average single value transaction rates are low, the ability to use multiple providers across transactions would mean that debt of £1,000 could easily build up without being visible to CRAs or mainstream lenders. He also noted that some retailers offer a choice of providers, so customers can easily, and do, shop around if one provider refuses the credit. Although it is partly true that younger consumers prefer one off transactions to using a traditional credit card, the study also found that over 10% of customers using BNPL were already in arrears of mainstream debt.
Treasury are aware of the key concerns of:
- consumers not really understanding the product, but assuming it was regulated and that therefore they would, for example, have FOS access in relation to complaints about it;
- providers focusing more on benefiting retailers, who get more business when customers use BNPL and therefore the risk that customer journeys are not tailored to the interests of the consumer; and
- lack of basic customer protections, such as affordability assessments, the potential for high levels of debt and no scope for protecting vulnerable customers, added to the lack of transparency of levels of debt
FCA is concerned that non-financial firms using the interest-free credit exemption in the way it was intended should not be brought within the perimeter.
Treasury has also published its response, from John Glen, on 28 January, agreeing with the principles of the recommendations.


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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is supposed to be upgraded as the next-gen masterpiece. But, the video game company CD Projekt Red has delayed its release. The Witcher 3 franchise announced via a social media post that the game is yet to come, and anticipators will have to wait a bit more. The game first arrived among the gaming community in 2015, and ever since, it has gained massive popularity. Wild Hunt’s release date was due in the second quarter of the year, but the company’s plan has changed, given some necessary steps to make the game a better version.
Delay in The Witcher 3 Release
A strange turn of events occurred in the Witcher 3 gaming world recently. On Wednesday, the gaming development firm Projekt Red announced the delay in Wild Hunt’s arrival. The CD said that there is still some work to do on the upcoming Q2 game, and the team is evaluating it thoroughly. The bigger news was the game’s decision to bring the Witcher 3 in the house to make necessary updates and changes. The company tweeted that its in-house team of developers will tailor the next-gen Witcher 3 to run on PS5 and Xbox series X.
What To Expect from Wild Hunt?
The CDPR hasn’t disclosed all the details regarding the updates and modifications in the Witcher 3. However, the reports say that the gaming experts are going to work on certain aspects, including refreshing rate, quicker load time, ray-traced lighting, and software management, in order to accomplish smooth compatibility with advanced hardware of PCs and consoles. Most importantly, the game is to be enhanced according to the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback for the DualSense controller. Also, the developers are bringing some features of the Netflix Witcher series, but it isn’t confirmed which specific features the gamers will encounter in the game. So far, the gaming community fond of Witcher games can expect smoothness in terms of Graphics, resolution, run time, and interface of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
CD Project Red is looking forward to entertaining itself by partnering with Epic Games to present the 4th edition of the Witcher. The collaboration will utilize the Unreal Engine 5 to create the new version of Witcher. So far, The Witcher 3 is in the making process, and the gaming giants are already joining their heads together to create a new masterpiece.
Many RPG games are rolling around the gaming world, including the Elden Ring, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and Horizon Forbidden West but the upcoming Witcher games have made gamers a bit curious since two titles from the same series are under production, and none has a release date yet.


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News Byte: Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $19 Billion
Facebook spends big bucks on start-up
Facebook recently announced its acquisition of instant messaging start-up WhatsApp for $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. An additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp's founders and employees that will vest over four years after closing, bringing the total purchase prise to $19 billion. The surprising move is the most expensive acquisition for the company to date, drastically eclipsing the $1 billion Instagram purchase.
WhatsApp boasts 450 million monthly users, with 70% of those users active on a given day, according to a release. The release also notes that about 1 million users register with WhatsApp each day.
The purchase comes amid industry speculation that the social media giant is rapidly losing its younger audience to other services such as Snapchat.
Alternatively, this acquisition is further evidence of Facebook prioritizing mobile. As of December 31, 2013, Facebook reached more than 945 million mobile monthly active users—a 39% increase over 2012, according to the company's Q4 2013 earnings report.


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The two companies said in a joint statement on Thursday that they had modified the terms of their initial merger agreement, lowering the price per share that LVMH will pay from $135 to $131.50. The move now values the company at $15.8 billion, $400 million less than the $16.2 billion originally agreed upon. It also ends a legal battle over the deal.
“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with LVMH at an attractive price and to now be able to proceed with the merger,” said Roger Farah, the chairman of Tiffany, in the statement. “The board concluded it was in the best interests of all of our stakeholders to achieve certainty of closing.”
LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said that the new agreement was “balanced,” and “allows LVMH to work on the Tiffany acquisition with confidence.”
— This is a developing story and will be updated.